Goodbye
by lunaflore
Summary: After Elsa has frozen her sister's heart, only an act of true love can save her. A kiss from Anna's fiance is just the thing. Learn what's going through Kristoff's mind, when he brings a cold and weak Anna back to the castle of Arendelle and Hans, and has to say goodbye to her.


**Features slight differences/additions to what was shown in the movie. Olaf does not appear. ****The title is sort of a pun, since neither Anna nor Kristoff actually say goodbye.**

* * *

Finally, they were approaching the castle. Kristoff could see the main structure and its towers. The great wall was visible, too. It was all there, only half buried beneath the snow. However, the fjord that nestled the castle of Arendelle had altered greatly. The water of the inlet was completely frozen. Subzero weather had transformed it into a rigid mass of ice. In the morning sunlight, its surface was gleaming with a crystal-like sheen.

But the spectacular weather changes weren't important. What was important was Anna. Anna, who at that instant was cuddled up in Kristoff's embrace. Kristoff's reindeer Sven was carrying them to the castle. Sven had been charging down the mountains with the two of them on his back since they left the Valley of The Living Rock last night. That was where Kristoff's troll family told them that Anna's life was in jeopardy.

The reason for that was something that happened earlier in the day, at the outskirts of The Kingdom of Arendelle, atop of the North Mountain. They went up to North Mountain, because they knew that that was where Queen Elsa could be found.

* * *

When Kristoff met Anna, she told him that it was her older sister, the new queen of Arendelle, who was responsible for the meteorological madness in which Arendelle had been immersed in. Elsa had released a magical offset of blizzards, snowdrifts, and icicles, which had traversed through the country and left everyone flabbergasted and cold. Kristoff knew that magic was real, but he had never witnessed it in such capacity. Neither had he any knowledge about the queen having magic powers. However, Anna told him that Elsa had kept them hidden until very recently. And snow magic rang true as an explanation to the unnatural and ferocious snowstorm that was coming from the largest mountain in the kingdom.

So Anna and he traveled to see Elsa. Anna was determined to find her and convince her that she can bring summer back into its rightful place in the succession of seasons. But trying to do that turned out to be futile.

Yesterday, when it was sunny and bright and daytime, Kristoff and Anna reached the said mountain. What they saw was far from what they could have imagined. Elsa The Snow Queen had built a stunning ice palace upon an incline. Kristoff's eyes almost started to water when he saw it. Being an ice harvester, he could definitely appreciate the beauty of frozen water turned into architecture.

But when in the ice palace, they learned that Elsa had no idea how to undo the needless winter. She just stood there in her sparkling blue dress and kept repeating that she didn't know how. She was clearly upset and distraught. Kristoff could tell that she had little control over her emotions. Or abilities. So when Anna blurted that she wasn't leaving without Elsa, the queen got mad and struck her sister in the chest with an ice blast.

Soon after that, when they had left the palace, Anna's hair started to whiten. Kristoff didn't know exactly what was going on. But he looked at her and knew that trolls could help her.

Kristoff had failed to realize it when they first met. When she was obstructing the shelf with carrots in Wandering Oaken's Trading Post, and he asked her to move. He didn't comprehend it back then. However, it couldn't be denied anymore. It being the fact that Kristoff had seen Anna before.

It wasn't because she was an Arendelle royal, and therefore at least theoretically widely known. No, Kristoff had seen her in the trolls' hideaway place. Many years ago.

* * *

When he was very young, Kristoff witnessed the trolls healing a small girl. This girl had been struck in the head with mystical cryokinetic powers. She had a streak of white in her reddishly blond tresses.

In fact, it had also been the first time when Kristoff encountered actual trolls. Or witnessed their fantastic transformation. He saw, with his own eyes, how the moss-covered rocks that lay around the valley turned into living beings. Before that Kristoff thought that "trolls who disguise as rocks" was a fable that adults told children as a bedtime story.

The trolls and Kristoff eventually became close. They displayed great care and warmth toward him. They took him in as one of their own. In a little while, Kristoff began considering them his family. Before that, Kristoff had been a lonely orphan. A boy without any kin folk or a place to call home. His only friend was a baby reindeer, whom Kristoff had named Sven. It didn't bother him, at the age of eight, that Sven was a human name.

With time, the memory of trolls healing the girl had become hazy in Kristoff's mind. It was blurred together with others about trolls and the supernatural things that they could do. Before long, he only recalled that night vaguely.

But, in the middle of their journey to rescue Arendelle from the involuntary and untimely winter, it all came back to him.

After they were forced to leave Elsa's palace, Anna and Kristoff jumped down a drop. It wasn't like they had planned to do anything of that kind. They were running from a snow monster. Anna's increasingly frustrated sister had conjured one to keep them away. They ran until they reached a drop and had no other choice but to jump.

'There's twenty feet of fresh powder down there; it'll be like landing on a pillow,' Kristoff assured Anna and himself. 'Hopefully,' he added.

Then they leaped.

The ground didn't exactly feel like a soft pillow, but they landed securely. Only the ever clumsy Anna got stuck in the snow. Kristoff dashed to help her out of it. By then Kristoff didn't mind helping Anna. He had gotten used to her. Even more so – he had started to find her spontaneous and awkward personality charming, rather than annoying and unfit for a princess. He still believed that it was dumb of her agree to marry someone she had just met. But it had been a while since she had last mentioned Hans. One could almost think she had forgotten about him.

'Here,' he said, while lifting her out.

She was light as a feather. Kristoff liked the feel of her petite, delicate body. Not that he was supposed to pay attention to her body. It just happened to be close to his.

'Whoa,' she said, while he hauled her out.

'You okay?' He asked.

'Yes. Thank you.'

They looked at each other.

They were so near, only inches apart.

That was the first time when Kristoff noticed how gorgeous her iridescent blue and green eyes were. How gorgeous all of her was. Anna was strikingly beautiful. How come he hadn't seen it before?

'How's your head?' She asked after some time, breaking the lengthy eye contact, which had started to become uncomfortable.

'I mean, it's fine,' he said and touched the spot where he banged his head, while falling down. 'I'm good. I've got a thick skull,' he mumbled. He didn't know why he said that. He had no idea if his skull was thick or not. 'So… now what?' Kristoff asked.

Suddenly Anna's expression turned panicky.

'Now what?! Oh! What am I gonna do? She threw me out. I can't go back to Arendelle with the weather like this. And then there's your ice business…'

'Hey, don't worry about my ice business,' he said. He found it cute, her stressing about it. He wanted her to know that it could wait.

Then he noticed Anna's hair. The unexplained dash of white which had been there before had expanded. The whiteness was spreading over all of her head.

'…worry about your hair,' he finished.

As Kristoff said these words, a memory struck like a bolt of lightning. He remembered the red-haired girl who had the same predicament. And that her parents had brought her to see the trolls. And her older sister, who was also there. She was the one with the ice powers. The flashback sparked in his mind, the dots connected, and Kristoff knew that it had been Elsa and Anna.

'You should see yours! I just fell off a cliff,' Anna said defensively.

'No, yours is turning white. It has to be because she struck you,' he said. 'But no need to worry. I know who can help.'

Kristoff could only hope that the trolls would be able to work the same magic once again.

* * *

On their way to see them, Kristoff couldn't help noticing that Anna was becoming increasingly feeble. She was shivering with cold. Some strange cold it was, too. He could tell that it wasn't caused by the lowering temperature, but came from within. Kristoff wanted to put his hand around her, but decided not to. He knew that, if he would, it would reveal his budding feelings for. He realized that there was no point for him to be feeling anything. Anna and he were strangers who would separate soon and never see each other again. Kristoff was repeating that in his head. But it had little use.

While they were walking, Anna kept on referring to Kristoff's family as "love experts". It was this private joke that had begun between them. The name amused Kristoff. He thought that the trolls would accept it immediately.

When they reached the valley, the trolls actually started behaving like love experts. They showed an absurd level of excitement about seeing Kristoff with a person of the opposite sex. Especially Bulda, Kristoff's adoptive mother. For quite some time now, she had been desperate to get Kristoff married. For that reason, she acted like she didn't care that Anna was already engaged to someone else. She grabbed Anna and inspected her eyes, nose, and teeth. Bulda then pronounced that she will do nicely for her Kristoff. The other trolls acted in the same vein. They even started a song and dance number about them being_ trollfully_ _wedded_ to each other.

Embarrassed Kristoff had to pull Anna away from them. He explained that to be trollfully wedded wasn't what they were here for. Then he recounted what went down at the North Mountain.

Grand Pabbie, the oldest, wisest, and most powerful of the trolls, was ushered through the crowd to evaluate the situation. Almost immediately, he proclaimed that no help could be provided from his side.

He said that Elsa, the unintentional villain of this story, had frozen Anna's heart.

'Anna, your life is in danger,' he told them. 'There is ice in your heart, put there by your sister. If not removed, to solid ice will you freeze, forever. But there is nothing I can do. If it was her head, that would be easy. But only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.'

All together they decided that, for an act of true love to happen, Anna had to be with her true love.

'Anna, we've got to get you back to Hans,' Kristoff said.

'Hans,' Anna murmured. Her tone was delirious. It sounded like she couldn't remember who Hans was.

Then she collapsed against Kristoff.

'Let's go now,' he said, while holding her. 'We haven't got any time to waste.'

And so Kristoff and Anna got on Sven. They raced through woodlands and mountain paths to bring Anna back to her fiance. At one point she began trembling really badly. He gave her his hat. He reckoned it would help, if only for a little.

* * *

While Sven was galloping through Arendelle, the night ended and sun rose above the frozen land. Then lastly they reached the iced fjord and castle in the middle of it. The road leading to the castle was covered by a thick blanket of snow. It crusted underneath Sven's hooves. They rode into the courtyard. Sven skidded up to the castle gates.

Kristoff knew that it was time to put Anna back on the ground. But even though they had rushed on their way here, he now he didn't want to let her loose. So feeble and cold she was. He knew that she preserved some warmth, while still held by him. But Anna was already getting off the reindeer. Kristoff followed. When they were back on the ground, they looked at each other again. He could see that her hair was now entirely pale blond – the same color as the queen's. In the early sunshine, Anna's eyes looked bluer and bigger than ever before. Yet he couldn't read anything in them.

'Here,' Anna said, as she reached to take the hat off her head.

'No,' he said, and put his hand on her arm to stop her. 'You keep it. That way you will have something to remind you of our once-in-a-lifetime adventures.'

She smiled a sour smile. He gave an equally unenthusiastic one in response. He had given her his hat to keep her warm and had no intention of taking it back. He knew it was sentimental and silly. But still he wanted her to have something that used to be his.

'Kristoff,' Anna started in an unsteady voice. 'I just want to tell you…'

'Don't,' he said and looked away.

Kristoff knew that, whatever she had to say, he didn't have the strength to listen to it.

He had known Anna for less than two days. But she had turned his world upside down. Before that, Kristoff would have sworn that no person could change his life in two days. In fact, he probably would have sworn that no person could change his life at all. Before Anna, it was all about Sven, trolls, him cutting and delivering ice, and living a solitary life high in the mountains. Two days ago, he didn't get along with other people well. Especially those who vastly differed from him. Didn't Kristoff despise royalties, all those who had titles, rich folks with privileges that ordinary people like him didn't have? People like that had nothing in common with him.

But beneath the different social classes and personalities, Anna and he had so much in common. They were both determined and righteous. They both valued simplicity and hated pretentiousness. Neither wanted to be treated with superiority. And Kristoff knew, from her accounts of life in the sheltered castle, that she, like him, had often led a lonely existence. It was like there was this bond that connected them. Kristoff wasn't sure he believed in such things. But when it came to Anna, it couldn't be denied. Kristoff knew he wouldn't be the same now, when he had known her. And now the girl who had irrevocably changed all things for Kristoff was leaving to be with her fiance. No, he couldn't bear hearing her say "it was nice knowing you" and "thanks for everything" and "we'll see each other again someday".

'Don't say anything,' he said. 'There's no need for that. Just go. Go now or you'll freeze to death. You're very weak and cold.'

At that moment, the palace guards, who were the other side of the gates, saw them.

'It's Princess Anna!' One of them yelled.

The gates were opened. Castle workers dashed toward her. They caught the weakened princess and started dragging her inside.

'Find Prince Hans, immediately! And make sure she's safe!' Kristoff tried telling them.

But nobody paid him any heed. They all fussed around Anna, and had barely noticed that another person and a reindeer were standing there, too.

Anna was being carried away from Kristoff. For good. When would he see her next time? Kristoff didn't have a clue. But no matter how it might happen, by then she would be married. She wouldn't be his anymore. No, what was he thinking? Anna never had been his. When already inside the courtyard, Anna looked back. Their eyes met for what Kristoff was sure was the last time. Then, the gates were slammed shut. The girl he loved disappeared from his view.

Kristoff looked at Sven. The animal, who understood very well what was going on, gave a sad hoot. Kristoff heaved a sigh. He then nuzzled Sven's head and antlers.

'Let's go now, buddy,' he said to his loyal companion. 'Let's head back to the ice fields. The harvesters will be waiting for us. There's nothing left for us to do here anymore.'

Thus the mountain man and the reindeer set off. They went marching away from the castle and the frozen fjord. When they reached a slope that led into the forest, the wind intensified and snow started falling again.


End file.
